Inside Earthright Pest Control's Bed Bug Heat Business with Scott Sowers

Kasey Devine Left a Top Sales Job to Fix the Problem He’d Watched the Industry Ignore for Years

🎤 Kasey Devine Left a Top Sales Job to Fix the Problem He’d Watched the Industry Ignore for Years Kasey Devine, founder and CEO of Entravia, spent over a decade mastering the workflows inside some of the biggest names in HR outsourcing — then left a top five national sales ranking at ADP to build the platform the industry never bothered to create. Six months in, Entravia has raised $2.6 million, won the Evergreen Award for Best PEO Shopping Platform, and is already threatening legacy workflows across a $414 billion industry. ✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn: * Cardinals ticket sales as the moment sales stopped being a dirty word * ADP training as a total transformation — from territory management to pipeline structure * The chamber of commerce moment that turned near-failure into a relationship-first sales philosophy * How to ask the one sidebar question at the end of every meeting that changes everything * The mortgage application that showed Casey how far the PEO industry had fallen behind * Why Entravia pivoted from B2C shopping platform to white-labeled B2B infrastructure overnight * The general agency model and how it made brokers partners instead of competitors * Getting rejected by every VC, then getting a second look through one unexpected relationship * Why the cost of building software dropped enough to make this startup possible now * Browser-based bots that could compress a 9-week PEO evaluation into a single day — once the threats stop 🌟 Casey’s Key Mentors: * His ADP manager and training program: built the entire foundation for how he thinks about territory, pipeline, relationships, and value creation * TriNet founder and ProCare HR founder: showed him what it looks like to lead a sales and marketing org with accountability and discipline * M25 and Cambrian Ventures: gave him the capital and credibility to move fast on a problem he already understood better than anyone * His mother: showed him what self-determination looks like when you have no safety net — and that nobody’s coming to save you 👉 Don’t miss this conversation about why helping people is the only sales strategy that actually scales, how a $414 billion industry forgot to make its product easy to buy, and what it looks like to bet everything on a problem you’ve spent your whole career watching go unsolved. 🔗 Connect with Kasey Devine: Website: entravia.co 📤 Transcript Available: Kasey Devine Left a Top Sales Job to Fix the Problem He’d Watched the Industry Ignore for Years 📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast 🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast 📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line Website: addbackbenefits.com

Inside Earthright Pest Control's Bed Bug Heat Business with Scott Sowers

🎙️ Scott Sowers: From Textile Executive to Ohio Pest Control Founder In this episode, Scott Sowers, founder of Earthright Pest Control, shares how a tearful conversation with his wife pulled him out of a 16-year global textile career and into building a family-owned, people and pet safe pest control company in central Ohio. He opens up about scrapping his business plan two weeks after launch, building one of the state's top bed bug heat eradication companies, and the letter his eight-year-old wrote at school that changed how he spends his time. ✨ Key Insights You'll Learn: * 16 years in textiles before pivoting to pest control * Left a global career after his wife's tearful request * Threw out his business plan two weeks after launch * Built one of Ohio's top bed bug heat eradication companies * People, pet, and plant safe treatment philosophy * Worked seven days a week for over a decade * Daughter's school letter sparked a major life reset * Spent a year and thousands solving one unique infestation * Expanding into Dublin and Polaris for efficiency * Shifting the company to run on data, not gut feel 🌟 Scott's Key Mentors: * His Father: Serial entrepreneur who modeled relentless work ethic * His Wife: Former ICU cardiac nurse who pushed him toward something real * His Uncle: Ran the family's side pest control truck, sparked his interest * His Daughter: Her school letter reshaped how he spends his time * Nationwide Pest Control Peers: Helped him crack one of his toughest cases 👉 A candid look at what it costs to build something from nothing, and what it takes to notice before the cost gets too high. 🔗 Connect with Scott Sowers: Website: earthrightpestcontrol.com 📄 Transcript Available: Inside Earthright Pest Control's Bed Bug Heat Business with Scott Sowers 📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast 🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast 📄 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line Website: addbackbenefits.com

Ben Cooke Turned 18 Running Stores Into a Trail Running Movement with Marathon Sports

🎤 From All-American Runner to Running Retail’s Most Restless Builder: Ben Cooke at Marathon Sports Ben Cooke, President of Marathon Sports, has spent 25 years building things inside companies he didn’t own — then lost everything trying to build something that was truly his. Along the way he helped create Fleet Feet’s corporate retail arm, launched their e-commerce platform, built an On Running program that became 8% of On’s global business, and is now turning a 30-location New England specialty retailer into a trail running brand with global ambitions. ✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn: * Competitive athletics as the foundation for a business career driven by daily PRs * Running Princeton Running Company as a de facto entrepreneur for 11 years under a Koch Industries executive * Selling to Finish Line and stepping into a national roll-up role without M&A experience * Transitioning from owned retail to franchising and why the cultures require entirely different instincts * Building Fleet Feet’s e-commerce, Amazon business, and distribution center from scratch * The On Running partnership that took them from zero to hundreds of thousands of pairs * Acquiring Marathon Sports in 2022 and growing from 18 to 32 locations in four years * Trail running as a flywheel — races, field trips, and dirt camps building the customer of tomorrow * Why win-win-win is the only deal structure worth pursuing * Losing everything on two outdoor stores in Colorado and what the failure actually taught him 🌟 Ben’s Key Mentors: * Princeton Running Company founder: modeled entrepreneurial decision-making at the local level, inspired by Koch Industries’ market-based management philosophy — without ever naming it * Fleet Feet leadership: gave him room to innovate across every department and scale concepts from zero * Podcasts (Founders, Acquired): a daily MBA on the commute, replacing incidental mentorship with intentional learning from the best business minds in history * His own failures: the Colorado outdoor stores taught him that systems and teams — not individual toughness — are what allow entrepreneurs to flourish 👉 Don’t miss this conversation about building something from inside someone else’s company, the specific deal structure that turned On Running into a powerhouse, and what it feels like to lose everything you put in and still say you’d do it again. 🔗 Connect with Ben Cooke: Website: marathonsports.com 📤 Transcript Available: Ben Cooke Turned 18 Running Stores Into a Trail Running Movement with Marathon Sports 📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast 🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast 📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line Website: addbackbenefits.com

From Embroidery Machines to Global Blank Apparel: Three Generations of Next Level

🎤 Three Generations, One Brand: Eric Simsolo’s Path to President of Next Level Apparel Eric Simsolo, President of Next Level Apparel, grew up watching his father and grandfather build a wholesale apparel empire from a single embroidery machine in Los Angeles. He chose to start as an intern anyway, worked through every corner of the business, and stepped into the president’s role during one of the company’s most demanding turnarounds. What he found wasn’t just a cleanup project — it was a masterclass in what it looks like to build something that outlasts you. ✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn: * Three generations of apparel entrepreneurship beginning in Israel in the late 1970s * How sublimation printing innovation unlocked photorealistic design at mass-market scale * Warehouse move as an MBA-caliber project management experience in summer 2014 * Post-COVID inventory crisis and the eight-figure write-off that preceded the rebuild * Stop the bleeding — the four-stage turnaround framework borrowed from battlefield medicine * The dynamics of reporting directly to your father as president and CEO * Acquisition of Stedman Europe expanding Next Level from two to fourteen distributors * First-ever impact report measuring carbon footprint, cotton sourcing, and supply chain responsibility * US Cotton Trust Protocol and recycled polyester as tangible sustainability commitments * Altana AI platform for vetting vendor relationships and preventing supply chain blind spots 🌟 Eric’s Key Mentors: * His grandfather: engineering visionary who retooled industrial printing presses for sublimation, turning a ceiling into a floor for the next generation * His father: market-research-driven entrepreneur who identified every new business category before competitors saw it, and modeled the courage to start over twice * Next Level’s leadership team: COO, VP of HR, and department heads who carried institutional knowledge through multiple transitions * The Stedman Europe team: gave Eric his first model of what a properly staffed international subsidiary could look like 👉 Don’t miss this conversation about what it actually feels like to step into your father’s company during a crisis, why sustainability is a revenue strategy and not just a values statement, and what it means to build something designed to outgrow the person who built it. 🔗 Connect with Eric Simsolo: Website: nextlevelapparel.com 📤 Transcript Available: From Embroidery Machines to Global Blank Apparel: Three Generations of Next Level 📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast 🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast 📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line Website: addbackbenefits.com

Rebuilding a Struggling Orthotics Franchise After Buying It the Week Before COVID

🎤 From Beijing Dealmaker to Foot Health CEO: John Prothro’s Rebuild of Foot Solutions John Prothro, President and CEO of Foot Solutions, spent years closing cross-border deals in Beijing, running a 250-person scaffolding company on four continents, and building a private equity fund before acquiring a neglected foot health franchise one week before COVID shut the world down. What followed was a brand overhaul, a failed acquisition that became a recurring speech topic, and the rollout of 3D printed custom orthotics delivering a 97% success rate at four times the speed of traditional methods. ✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn: * Acquiring Foot Solutions one week before COVID and surviving with no e-commerce * Brand overhaul starting with a three-word exercise that revealed complete messaging chaos * 3D printed custom orthotics outperforming traditional lab methods in speed and accuracy * Semi-weight-bearing scanning technique that separates effective from ineffective orthotics * Happy Feet Plus acquisition post-mortem — what went wrong and why * Service business versus retail business distinction that drove the acquisition failure * Medicare diabetic shoe bill as an underutilized patient benefit and growth opportunity * 5% royalty structure and no brand fund fee as a franchisee-first differentiator * 26 years of training infrastructure as a near-impossible barrier to entry * Path to 350–400 US locations from current base of 52 🌟 John’s Key Mentors: * Scaffolding company CEO: challenged John to move from advising to doing, exposing the gap between knowing and leading * Inner Mongolia business partner: gave John his Chinese name meaning “watering the people around you” — a philosophy he carried forward * Peter Drucker, Jack Welch, and the Harvard Business Review case study library: built his early nonfiction foundation before he realized people skills mattered more * Foot Solutions franchisees: brought the European scanning technology to corporate, modeling the organizational learning John now builds the system around 👉 Don’t miss this conversation about why most custom orthotics fail before they’re even made, what a bombed acquisition taught a seasoned dealmaker, and how a 26-year-old brand is building a category from scratch. 🔗 Connect with John Prothro: Website: footsolutions.com Email: franchising@footsolutions.com 📤 Transcript Available: Rebuilding a Struggling Orthotics Franchise After Buying It the Week Before COVID 📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast 🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast 📤 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: AddBack Benefits Agency - Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line Website: addbackbenefits.com